USFA retrofit grant awarded
The United States Fire Administration (USFA) awarded a $250,000 grant to the People’s Firehouse, a Brooklyn, NY-based community organization that is active in promoting fire prevention and providing housing for lowto-moderate income groups as well as for special cases (battered women, the homeless, and the disabled).
The grant will be used to retrofit eight Northside Brooklyn apartment buildings with quick response residential sprinklers.
The People’s Firehouse is one of several projects supported by the USFA to promote research and development of low-cost residential sprinklers and to develop installation and retrofitting standards. The project will serve as a model demonstration on how to achieve a retrofit systems approach.
Time, materials, and technical assistance is being offered by some industry-related groups: the Copper Development Association, the Masonry Industrial Committee, the National Electrical Manufacturers, the National Fire Sprinklers Association, and the Society of the Plastics Industry.
Some retrofit work will be done by 30 high-school dropouts from a rehabilitation program that combines vocational training with counseling.
